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Dessert

Sweet Patties

Sweet patties made from boiled calf’s foot meat, apples, candied peel, currants, and spices, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Sweet Patties

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

  1. Chop the meat of the boiled calf’s foot and mix it with the liquor, apples, candied orange and lemon peels, fresh peel and juice, grated nutmeg, egg yolk, brandy, and currants.

  2. Fill small pattypans with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf’s foot meat
Adds body and substance, and its natural gelatin helps the filling hold its shape.
Calf’s foot liquor
Supplies moisture and gelatin, which helps the filling set as it cools.
Apples
Add moisture, body and gentle sweetness to the filling.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture and sets with heat, giving a firm but tender texture.
Currants
Add sweetness and a chewy texture that contrasts with the soft filling.
Candied orange peel
Adds concentrated sweetness and a bright citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Baking until set. The egg yolk and the gelatin from the calf’s foot liquor set the filling as it heats. Stop when it is firm. Too little time leaves it runny, and too much toughens the egg and dries the filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, apple, orange, lemon, nutmeg, egg, brandy):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blackberryfits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, apple, orange, lemon, nutmeg, egg, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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